Description
Also known as Coralfish, Crescent-masked Butterflyfish, Halfmoon Butterflyfish, Lunule Butterflyfish, Moon Butterflyfish, Raccoon Butterfly, Raccoon Coralfish, Red-striped Butterflyfish, Spotted Butterflyfish.
Found singly, pairs, or in schools, over shallow reef flats, of lagoon and seaward reefs.
They feed on algae, coral polyps, benthic invertebrates, and nudibranch.
Length - 20cm
Depth - 0-170m
Widespread Southeast Atlantic, Indo-Pacific
Butterflyfishes have very fine hair like teeth that enable them to pick out small organisms inaccessible to most other fish for eating.
They thrive mainly on a diet of coral polyps, tentacles of featherdusters and Christmas-tree worms. As these food sources all zap back into their shells, butterflyfishes need to be able to hover motionless while picking at the coral and to dart swiftly over short distances to get the worm before it retracts. They do this by using their Pectoral fins as oars to brake, sprint, turn and even reverse. Ref: https://www.fishbase.se/summary/chaetodon-lunula
1 comment
Posted by @davidmeridian179Juvenile raccoon butterfly fish show a second dark spot on the upper rear of the dorsal fin, as shown in some of the posted images.